Dubai: Heavy smoke forced dozens of tenants to vacate R97 building in Queue Point on Tuesday evening as fire fighters worked to contain a small blaze that residents said appeared to have started in the garbage chute.
Tenants on scene said that they made their way through smoke-filled hallways to emergency stairs to evacuate the building shortly after 8pm.
A First Responder vehicle was on scene after calls to Dubai Civil Defence and two large fire trucks appeared on scene.
Dubai Police also dispatched officers to the scene.
Fire trucks left the scene around 9:10 pm and residents returned to their homes.
"There was a heavy burning smell when we opened the door to our apartment and the building fire alarm was on so we decided to leave," one resident told Gulf News on scene. "There was a little bit of smoke in the stairwell so it wasn't too much trouble."
Another resident waiting outside of the building on the street said he saw no evidence of injuries.
"No one was injured thank God. It was all smoke from what we could see. There were no flames," he said.
The fire was the second in as many years in the Queue Point community following a serious blaze in July 2015 when a fire broke out at a separate residential tower under construction.
In that earlier fire, a series of small explosions rocked the area around the unfinished tower, next to Mazaya 1 tower near Mohammed Bin Zayed Road, at around 12.45pm. The noise drew residents into the street.
The cause of the explosions last year were not immediately known and a spokesperson from Dubai Civil Defence said at the time that there were no injuries.
